Trip to Utah

We had a lovely trip to Utah a couple of weeks ago. It was a great trip, and so fun to see everyone! Here are some our adventures:

In some way, Dan is related to my father, because they both think it's fun to drive four hours out of the way to see some really random sight. This is exactly what we did on the way down to Utah. We stopped at Clarke's Lookout. It was a nice little hike and a fun view out over the plains of Montana. I have to admit, this was a nice stop. And it is actually in Dillon, so not out of the way at all. We may have to make it a regular stop.

The next stop was Beaverhead Rock. In theory, it should be pretty cool. When Lewis and Clark were traveling, they were relying completely on Sacagawea to help them find friendly Indians to trade horses with. They wouldn't have made the trip if they didn't find them. Sacagawea was able to recognize where her tribe was because of this rock. In reality, however, it wasn't a very good view, it was very out of the way, and we just got out of the car to look at it. Not cool. Dan still wanted a picture, though.

The last stop was to a ghost town in the mountains of Montana. This was a booming little town about a hundred years ago because of an abundance of silver and other valuable metals. It is still inhabited by a few people, but has mostly been preserved for tourists. The houses were actually pretty cool. We got to walk through them, and Emma thought it was great to pretend she was a pioneer in them.

When we finally made it to Utah, we got to go to a family reunion for Dan's side of the family at Willard Bay. We had tons of fun wakeboarding, jet-skiing, and canoeing.

On our last day of our vacation, we decided to go the Lagoon. We were lucky, and ended up going on Aggie Day, so we got in for a good price and got free Aggie Ice Cream in the evening. Both of our kids loved it. Seth enjoyed it far more than I expected he would. He loved these fountains, and had to stop every time we went near.

As always, in her own little world...

Oh boy, we loved the rides. Emma said she likes the fast ones, roller coasters, the best. Seth loved any ride he could get on. I let him go on a couple all by himself and it was crazy to see my little baby driving a bumper car or whatever.

This gun was fascinating. He giggled and giggled when he went up.

Classic Lagoon boat ride. Beyond thrilling! Though a little babyish for Emma.

Cutie pie!!! Waiting in lines was a little difficult for the oh-so-two year old.

I had to post this picture, because even though Emma was still a sweetie, she was starting to feel a little under the weather on the day we went to Lagoon. She woke up the next morning feeling really sick and wouldn't get out of bed. She ended up throwing up that morning, and a few more times on the drive back to Montana. I thought it was just the stomach flu, but after two more days of her keeping nothing down and her fever going up and up and watching her lie listlessly and weakly cry for mommy, I finally took her to the doctor. It was pretty scary. At this point, she had developed a rash over most of her abdomen, and a big ugly purplish red mark on her leg. As soon as the doctor looked at her, he said "she's got strep." No sore throat, but definitely strep, and a pretty bad case. They gave her a shot immediately, and she started improving withing a few hours. She's still recovering, but feeling so much better. Poor girl. Can you tell she's not her usual little Emma self?

This is the weird mark she got on her leg. It's kind of hard to see exactly, but it was terrifying. The doctor said it wasn't anything to worry about if it didn't blister and if her fever didn't return, so we have tried not to worry too much. But it actually reappeared two days ago, and since disappeared again. Such a mystery.

All in all, we had a great trip to Utah! Thanks everyone for the fun time. It was wonderful!